Becoming Like Christ: Your Awareness of God’s Presence
Friday, March 12
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Becoming Like Christ:
Your Awareness of God’s Presence
Luke 13:20-21
Rev. Kristen Koger
And again he said, “To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” – Luke 13:20-21
I don’t know if any of you took up breadmaking like so many others when this pandemic began. I have been making bread for a few years, and so when I suddenly couldn’t find flour at the store, it threw off my rhythm. I was given some bread starter from my best friend, Anna, who was given bread starter from her mom, who has been using the same starter for over 30 years.
I grew up eating Mrs. Stainback’s bread. When I was in college and would go visit Anna, I always returned to my dorm room with a freshly baked loaf. To be able to enjoy this bread now whenever I want is such a gift, and I always think of Mrs. Stainback when I make it.
One of the neatest things to me about this whole process is when I feed the starter and it seems to come alive. Just by adding a few simple ingredients, the mixture begins to move and bubble. As I check on it throughout the day, it seems to be growing. And then, when I add it to the flour and a few other ingredients, the process happens again.
I add the dough to a bowl, cover it with a towel, and place it in the oven to rise overnight. When I get up the next morning and peek in the oven, it’s always fun to see how much is different in just a few hours. Usually (and hopefully) the dough has doubled in size. So then, I punch it down and divide it between 2-3 loaf pans, and let it rise again. And then it’s time to bake.
From start to finish, this process takes about 26 hours. You have to be intentional when you decide to feed the starter. You can’t just throw it together quickly. You have to plan a bit and be prepared to be available when the bread needs tending to.
The season of Lent is a time when we as followers of Christ try our best to be more in tune with the way God is working in our lives. We are aware that as we arrive at Holy Week that we will be reminded of the big ways that God moved in the world in the last week of Christ’s life.
But for the rest of the season, we read passages about the smaller ways Christ was showing the world what it means to be a part of the kingdom of God- through gathering at tables, through welcoming those who were never invited, through showing the world what love looks like.
People in those times would have been making their own bread all the time, a completely normal and routine thing. I imagine that the next time a person was making bread, they were remembering the parable and thinking about what it meant. I also imagine that most of the people making bread in those days were women, who were often not given positions of authority in those days.
When Jesus provided this parable, I think he knew that it would connect with a different demographic than some of the other parables he shared. By speaking about the kingdom of God with this imagery, Jesus was saying, “Yes, this includes you too, my sisters.”
In this parable, we (and the world) are like the flour, and the presence of God is the yeast. It takes just a small amount of yeast to have a large effect on flour. The two must work together, get used to one another, and accept that if the flour is to become bread, that the yeast has to fully become a part of it. But once the two realize that they can make more changes together than they ever can apart- the end result is a beautiful, warm, and amazing thing.
We as followers of Christ are called to be a part of the work of the kingdom of God. That work is happening right now, not some unknown time in the future. Right now we are called to be aware of the ways God is moving and growing in our own lives, rising up in us and showing us how we can be a part of the kingdom of God that is here on earth.
When we care for one another, serve each other, love the least of these- each of these things is a small way that we are creating the kingdom of God.
In these final weeks of Lent, what are some ways that you can do your part to bring the kingdom of God to your little corner of the world? In what ways is God showing you how you can remind folx that they are a part of this kingdom too? How can you be intentional about being more in tune with how God is moving and working in your life?
Today and in the days ahead, I hope you can find some ways to reflect on these questions. Maybe bake a loaf or two of bread and be reminded that you, too, are already a part of the kingdom of God.
About “Becoming Like Christ” (Weekly Lenten Reflections)
In 2019, we developed a 7-week long series packed full of devotions called “Exploring Humanity and Divinity.” It was about wrestling with our humanity as we seek to be transformed into the likeness of Christ.
After a tumultuous last year, and with tensions high on political, cultural, and social levels, it seems that “wrestling” is just as relevant today as it was two years ago.
In that spirit, we believed it would be healthy to resurrect a similar theme to this year’s Lenten devotional series: Becoming Like Christ.